Prolyphic might have been an edgy character before (which is what initially got him noticed), but he's spittin' mad on this album now. Prolyphic & Reanimator have built one of the most vital indie hip-hop records of the year on a premise of anger that sounds like the inverse of, say, the Clipse: While the brothers Thornton wax caustically disinterested over coked out beats when their albums hit trouble, Prolyphic comes out with furious passion and Reanimator concocts maximal beats honed on past Francis albums like 2002's memorable Personal Journals and last year's Human the Death Dance. "Broken Bottles" and "Born Alone" open up the album with breathless rhymes that barely stop for air.

This dense style is what characterizes so much of independent hip-hop today: By sacrificing futuristic club beats or ridiculously inane Urban Dictionary catchphrases for serious (and often self-serious) floetry with generic bargain bin funk beats, it's easy for artists to fall into the perilous pigeonhole of backpacker. In some ways, The Ugly Truth lands a direct hit for social responsibility and brooding over the state of any inanimate object or concept within a ten-foot radius. "No time for punchlines / That's why I'm bitter," right there in "Survived Another Winter."

But "Survived Another Winter" (and "Artist Goes Pop," for that matter) is also a demonstration of why this record does more than merely lament societal indifference at the plight of the poor. This is also a personal journal of Prolyphic's own, a peek into the psyche of two dudes who have had this record brewing inside them for three years. What would the difference have been had they not lost those hard drives and put this out at the tail-end of the climax over Rhymesayers and Anticon?

That's not for us to answer. All we know for sure is what The Ugly Truth delivers: a solid hip-hop album that pulls no punches during its extended 58-minute run-time. If there was one complaint, it would be that the truth takes so long to get out... But sometimes you've got to delve just that little bit deeper just that little bit longer to get the ugliest bits out. In that light, Prolyphic & Reanimator's debut is a resounding success. It doesn't get much more honest than this.

On Ugly Truth, the new collabo record from Providence, Rhode Island MC Prolyphic and Chicago-based producer Reanimator, the beats and raps work in true concert with one another, rising and falling and intersecting at weird angles so that all the gaps and strange little percussive back alleys that permeate tracks like “Born Alone,” the single “Artist Goes Pop,” and “Survived Another Winter” (which also features the duo’s benefactor, Sage Francis) are just the kind of pocket Lyphic needs to illustrate his tales of struggle, darkness, and thriving in the face of adversity. What kind of adversity? It could be cosmic, with the way these dudes are riffing on some strange cheese. “Dick and Jane” tumbles in a more upbeat way, mostly because of its central sample, and also features a killer cameo from Australian MC and friend of Kill Rock Stars Macromantics, but for the most part Ugly Truth doesn’t break from the gloom and resignation of its title. “My heart explodes into a thousand downloads,” Prolyphic says in “Artist Goes Pop,” and in that moment you understand that what these guys are really worried about is losing their humanity in the face of too many pops and buzzes. — Thomas Rooker White

Sat May 17, 2008 10:12 am

prolyphic81

Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 390

I'm spittin mad about my cosmic adversities.

Sun May 18, 2008 7:52 am

futuristxen

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 19377
Location: Tighten Your Bible Belt

And the hiphop inverse of the Clipse apparently.

Sun May 18, 2008 8:25 am

prolyphic81

Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 390

well, The Clipse part is true.

Sun May 18, 2008 10:33 am

smake

Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 682
Location: The Netherlands

Their needs to be more talk about how amazing this records is. I am beginning to feel like some sort of sponsored fan or something, but for me this is one of my favorite hip-hop records ever. Everytime I listen to a track it becomes my new favorite, currently I am amazed by the lyrics on Easier Said Than Done and Two Track Mind, while On The Side and Box Within A Box are just hitting hard.

Sun May 18, 2008 3:55 pm

Sage FrancisSelf Fighteous

Joined: 30 Jun 2002
Posts: 21671

Easier Said and Two Track Mind are my two favorites I think.

I strongly urge all "sponsored fans" to not be so ashamed of the fact that you like this album so much and go on with spreading it to friends elsewhere. This forum already knows about the album. Every time I try to post about it in other places people just think I'm trying to promote a record just because it's on my label. P&R would greatly benefit from more support from the fans who are into the material. They're in a position where that kind of support is necessary for their expansion.

I'm excited that people are digging the album so much. Now we need more people to hear it.

Sun May 18, 2008 4:11 pm

futuristxen

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 19377
Location: Tighten Your Bible Belt

Yeah I still haven't heard the whole album. But every time someone says it's the greatest indie-hop record ever, I get some percentage curiouser.

I've been such a huge fan of the Failure that the Ugly Truth has grown into this like evil rival for Failure attention. I'm very much of the mindset of "how dare you talk about Ugly Truth, FAILURE nOObs!" Surely this will pass. Ostensibly because I'm not five years old.

To be fair, this is also what's keeping me from listening to the new Atmosphere album.

Sun May 18, 2008 5:51 pm

Bob_ptmfus

Joined: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 743

^You can still stream the ugly truth on imeem if you haven't bought it and are curious.

Sun May 18, 2008 6:36 pm

ArthasX

Joined: 28 Apr 2005
Posts: 145

Re: Audiversity reviews The Ugly Truth

[" What would the difference have been had they not lost those hard drives and put this out at the tail-end of the climax over Rhymesayers and Anticon?"

this line make anyone else curious? Anticon may have climaxed, but Rhymesayers? Soundset 08 doesn't seem like the event of a label in decline. When Life Gives You Lemons doesn't sound like decline (if we want to go by numbers, Rhymesayers just had by far their largest first-week sales). And with what I expect from Ali, I self, P.O.S (and the rest of doomtree) and almost every other rapper on that label, I hardly think they've climaxed.

And on topic - is there anyway to get those instrumentals with the disc anymore?